Both children and adults alike have enjoyed playing with a variety of hand-launched flying objects over the years. Perhaps the simplest of these objects, rubber bands, provide for a quick launch, but do not glide well and often painfully smack into a finger or thumb during launch. Toy gliders, such as paper airplanes, and their more sturdy balsa wood and plastic cousins, are typically configured to be thrown by a user and gently glide back to the ground.
To take advantage of the quick acceleration provided by rubber bands, certain prior art toy gliders have included a separate catapult launch unit formed by an elastic band secured to a stick. To launch the glider with the catapult launch unit, the user temporarily attaches a free end of the elastic band to a single attachment point on the glider, holds the stick in one hand via an outstretched arm, and pulls the glider back with the other hand until the elastic band is taut. The user next releases the glider, sending it catapulting toward the stick. With luck, the glider will miss the stick and be successfully launched. Unfortunately, luck does not always prevail, and the glider often crashes into the stick or hand of the user. This experience can be frustrating, and tends to decrease the enjoyment of these devices by users.